The present invention is directed to a device for separating a batch of sheets from a pile of sheets and then introducing the batch into a conveyor of a machine which is designed for processing the sheets.
The feeding of large size pasteboard or boxboard sheets into a machine used for printing and cutting the sheets is generally achieved in an automatic fashion in order to avoid toilsome work for the staff employed for the operation. One solution for automatically feeding the sheets into a processing machine consists in moving a pile of sheets from a vertical orientation into a horizontal position by means of an appropriate conveyor and device. When the pile is in the horizontal position, the sheets are then moved from the pile in such a manner that they will form a stream of shingled or scale-like wise arranged sheets which stream is then carried as far as the feeding station of the processing machine. After introduction into the station, the sheets of the stream are piled up again in order to be in a position which is compatible with the feeding system used by the processing machine. A device for accomplishing this is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,982,750. Because the sheets which are supplied to a board converter will have dimensions such as a width of between 1600 and 2000 mm and a length of between 1100 and 1270 mm and are received in a palletized pile with a height of approximately 1600 to 1700 mm, the pile, which is being handled by the apparatus, will have an extremely heavy weight when the palletized pile is fed to the machine.
While the above mentioned patent will enable relatively easily handling of the pile of sheets, the device does have the drawback of being a very large device which requires the use of various jointed conveyors which are extensive and also requires a more complex set up. In addition to this, it is extremely inefficient to change a pile into a stream of sheets and before applying any new working steps to the streams of sheets converting the stream back into a pile as proposed in the above solution.